CA State Meet Saturday — How many Newbury Park boys can break the Woodward Park course record: 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4?

Putting the times in perspective

https://twitter.com/FloTrack/status/1464779728091500548

I still give German the nod over Ritz in High School. He was the better runner overall.

I respectfully must disagree with the 'It has nothing to do with coaching". It is really easy to screw up talent, you see it all the time. It takes thoughtful, mindfulness with a coach who knows his "stuff" to bring these kids to the level they are at now. Not every coach can do that. Is Brosnan lucky to a degree yes, but to dismiss his role in their development?

to runnER/DR to call him a douche with a weird god complex or sociopath guess it takes one to know one. This guy is anything but.

Yes Colin Sahlman is getting a little bit of a raw deal for a couple reasons. 1. The team is the best ever, and the twins were right behind him.

2. He didn’t really have a full track season as a junior to chase times and improve. Super impressive 4:04 mile though.

He totally has the talent to go sub 4, and if he combines that with a ~8:35 3200 at arcadia, then he’ll definitely get the individual praise in the spring. He ran 8:43 last year, so it’s possible. That would put him squarely in the top 5 all time conversation. #2 at Woodward, Sub 4 Mile, and Sub 8:36 3200 would likely put him above Nico, and into the Verzbikas, Hunter discussion. I think those two are the best (and most well rounded) high school runners in history.

Also, you can consider it luck to get the Youngs and Sahlmans, but Brosnan does seem like a charismatic guy who has built a culture that attracts talent.

There are likely 4:10/9:00 guys walking around your local HS that are doing soccer, basketball, lacrosse, or nothing at all. Brosnan is getting those guys to run, and that is a skill, not all luck.

blargh wrote:

Yes Colin Sahlman is getting a little bit of a raw deal for a couple reasons. 1. The team is the best ever, and the twins were right behind him.

2. He didn’t really have a full track season as a junior to chase times and improve. Super impressive 4:04 mile though.

He totally has the talent to go sub 4, and if he combines that with a ~8:35 3200 at arcadia, then he’ll definitely get the individual praise in the spring. He ran 8:43 last year, so it’s possible. That would put him squarely in the top 5 all time conversation. #2 at Woodward, Sub 4 Mile, and Sub 8:36 3200 would likely put him above Nico, and into the Verzbikas, Hunter discussion. I think those two are the best (and most well rounded) high school runners in history.

I ran 9:28 in HS and I actually think Sahlman received a pretty good deal. It's an individual sport after all and like you said, he could end up being one of the GOATSs.

westsouthrunner wrote:

Verzbikas win over cheserek, gedyon, Lutz, moussa in 2010 was superior to me. Especially considering he had footlocker regionals before it. Cheserek was a 840 guy by then if I'm not mistaken

This was kinda Chesereks breakout race. He had been behind Jim Rosa all year until here, he hadn't run 8:40s yet, he would run close to that vs LV latter that winter season at NBIN

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Also, you can consider it luck to get the Youngs and Sahlmans, but Brosnan does seem like a charismatic guy who has built a culture that attracts talent.

There are likely 4:10/9:00 guys walking around your local HS that are doing soccer, basketball, lacrosse, or nothing at all. Brosnan is getting those guys to run, and that is a skill, not all luck.

Agreed

Also think of the percentage of coaches with athletes getting any of these type of times let alone multiple runners. To have your 6th runner 15:15 at Fresno is ridiculous and 7th had an off day at 15:40 or would have been up there my guess.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Also, you can consider it luck to get the Youngs and Sahlmans, but Brosnan does seem like a charismatic guy who has built a culture that attracts talent.

There are likely 4:10/9:00 guys walking around your local HS that are doing soccer, basketball, lacrosse, or nothing at all. Brosnan is getting those guys to run, and that is a skill, not all luck.

Wasn't there a thread awhile back that claimed there are dozens of guys every year with Rupp level talent that take a pass on the sport? There are thousands and thousands of guys that do compete in HS distance running and NP bros are at the tippy top, If Brosnan was at another HS he could find 8:40 guys playing other sports? If the Sahlman and Young families didn't live in NP, Brosnan would have pulled 4 or 5 other 8:40 guys off of the soccer field?

Bros, brahs and losers.

Let’s be real. It’s a combo of EVERYTHING.

Coach was thrown 4 bones.

Heck yeah, all he’s got to do is just “not screw it up”……

Like 90% percent of random coaches would screw it up!

Either by being clueless with the training program or maybe not even getting them out to run in the first place. I don’t know this teams story but I’m just talking in general.

I have no dog in the fight but as others have said this is like a 1 in 100 year deal.

It’s so many variables coming together at once. Would be like Jamin getting laid.

freekiprop wrote:

GBPUSD = 1.39 wrote:

German's 14:24 Woodward is also probably the second greatest individual HS XC performance ever, behind Ritz's 14:10 MI state win. Other contenders are Craig Virgin's 13:50 (and LV's 13:53), Sarah Baxter's absurd 2012 NXN win, and Ritz and LV's 2000 and 2010 FL wins respectively...but 14:24 solo at Woodward is otherworldly.

some more modern ones for consideration, neither lv or virgin actually have the detweiller course record anymore, nico ran 14:28 solo allegedly “holding back” at woodward, and even better was his nxn win. 14+ seconds over one of the best fields of all time and a 7 second course record in the rain and mud.

Nico wasn't holding back. He said so in his interview after the race.

Krusbp wrote:

Bros, brahs and losers.

Let’s be real. It’s a combo of EVERYTHING.

Coach was thrown 4 bones.

Heck yeah, all he’s got to do is just “not screw it up”……

Like 90% percent of random coaches would screw it up!

Either by being clueless with the training program or maybe not even getting them out to run in the first place. I don’t know this teams story but I’m just talking in general.

I have no dog in the fight but as others have said this is like a 1 in 100 year deal.

It’s so many variables coming together at once. Would be like Jamin getting laid.

Some posters seem to be saying it's easy to coach one German Fernandez but really difficult to coach 4 of them. Would a better coach have been needed if had GF been a triplet with 2 equally talented brothers?

Bower Man wrote:

If Aaron Sahlman or the Young bros don't break German's record next year, have to believe that 14:24 will last a few more generations.

Please...spare me! "A few generations"??? What a ridiculous - call it STUPID - boast.

Who the hell can KNOW what will happen in the future, and whether a Hobbs Kessler-kind of runner will emerge next year, or the next, or the next, etc.? "NOBODY" is the answer.

Anyone, like Bower Man, can GUESS, but such a 2021 statement about German's record (or a new record, if it is set next year by one of the NP boys) is like what idiots said in 2003 about the possibility of the Boston Red Sox ever breaking "the Curse of the Bambino" by winning the World Series ever again. The Sox went on to win the WS in '04, '07, '13, and '18. Will they win another WS within "a few more generations"? Who the hell KNOWS?? Oh, yeah, Bower Man must know...

Is this the best American HS XC team of all time?

chjjjbjkk wrote:

Does Colin fit anywhere in the all time XC greats?

He came within 2s of German’s time

He ran faster than Nico did

Fernandez, LV, Ritz, ?

No particular order

Webb, Rupp, Virgin, Hunter, Nico, Chez, Lindgren, Kessler, Nelson, Pre, Ryun..,

Does he fit anywhere in the top 10?

Nope, Nico and German ran their races solo. Colin had help.

New Standard wrote:

Is this the best American HS XC team of all time?

Without a doubt.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Also, you can consider it luck to get the Youngs and Sahlmans, but Brosnan does seem like a charismatic guy who has built a culture that attracts talent.

There are likely 4:10/9:00 guys walking around your local HS that are doing soccer, basketball, lacrosse, or nothing at all. Brosnan is getting those guys to run, and that is a skill, not all luck.

newbury park is literally 10x the size of the place i work, so I will assume I would be lucky to see that amount of talent come across in 10 years time. throw in the fact that it's a well to do area with a good gene pool, which is in the opposite direction of where i work, and it's really the case that it is the kind of talent that I won't find in my entire career.

It's a good setup. I am quite envious of those who get to work with such a student population.

You sound like a massive loser with all these excuses. Pity the kids you do coach.